


Winter Storm

by Insomnia_Productions



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-14 16:46:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4572078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insomnia_Productions/pseuds/Insomnia_Productions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Outside his window, the early-winter storm rages mercilessly. It is mid November, not yet cold enough for snow, but Ciel is quite certain that it is cold enough to make life miserable for any poor soul unfortunate enough to be caught out in such ghastly weather.<br/>Unless, of course, that poor soul is Alois Trancy, ins which case this ghastly weather offers him the opportunity to spend a night in the Phantomhive manor...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winter Storm

Outside his window, the early-winter storm rages mercilessly. It is mid November, not yet cold enough for snow, but Ciel is quite certain that it _is_ cold enough to make life miserable for any poor soul unfortunate enough to be caught out in such ghastly weather. He flicks his pen up his desk, not bothering to stop it when it rolls back down, falling to the floor.  
  
Only, it never makes it to the floor.  
  
“Dinner is ready, Young Master,” Sebastian says, placing the pen back in its place.  
  
Ciel peels himself off his chair to follow his butler downstairs. It feels like he’s been sitting in it all day, writing up reports and letters, not to mention the dozens of documents he had to sign. Just as they reach the foot of the stairs, there comes a feeble knocking from the door. Both Ciel and Sebastian turn to it, bemused. The knock comes again after a moment, louder this time.  
  
“Who could possibly be out in _this_ weather?” Muses Sebastian, reaching for the door.  
  
Ciel, mildly curious, tags along behind him.  
  
_At the very least_ , he thinks, _it will be a distraction from all that dull paperwork_.  
  
Sebastian opens the door, and Ciel just manages to stifle a gasp at the sight before him.  
  
A very wet and very despondent Alois Trancy stands in the doorway, hugging himself tightly and shivering as water drips off of him. He is not wearing his usual purple coat today, dressed only in a light, white shirt, accompanied by his oh-so-familiar black short-shorts, high socks, and three-inch-heeled boots. The fabric clings to his skin, which Ciel can see quite clearly (and, he thinks, quite unfortunately) through his soaking white shirt, and his blond hair, usually bright and fluffy, is dark and matted against his forehead.  
  
All in all, it is a rather pitiful sight.  
  
Ciel stares, and Alois stares right back, eyes wide as saucers.  
  
“C-Ciel?” He stutters.  
  
Ciel scowls instinctively. “Who else were you expecting to find in _my_ mansion?”  
  
“Well, I didn’t know it was _your_ mansion, did I?” Alois snaps, mutter something that sounds an awful lot like _would’ve stayed out there if I had._  
  
Ciel raises and eyebrow, and Alois jerks a thumb over his shoulder.  
  
“Like _you_ could see an _inch_ in front of you out there.”  
  
Ciel sneaks a glance at Sebastian, and then turns back to the shivering Alois. “Where’s your butler?”  
  
“Claude?” Alois smiles bitterly. “Damned if _I_ know.” He lowers his eyes, fixing them on Ciel’s shoes, and his voice drops. “We went out for the afternoon, since I’d just finished a truckload of paperwork and needed some air. I asked him to take me somewhere with bluebells, and we went to a park a few miles north of here. Around an hour ago, he disappeared. I waited for him, even when it started raining. But when the lightning started, my coachman said we ought to get away from the trees, so we started heading home. But it was dark and stormy and we couldn’t see anything, not without Claude.” He meets Ciel’s eyes. “So we stopped at the first mansion we found.”  
  
Ciel frowns. “But he’s your butler. He’s supposed to protect you. Leaving you alone at night in the middle of a storm like this… isn’t it defying your contract?”  
  
“Not if he knows I won’t die,” Alois responds quietly.  
  
Ciel feels a pang of pity. He knows how it feels to be alone, unwanted, without anyone to turn to--  
  
_Wait._  
  
Does he, though? Seeing Alois, lost and cold and so very alone, to the point that he’d seek shelter in his own enemy’s mansion… Ciel has never been in this state, has he? He remembers being in Alois’ mansion, seeing his servants.  
  
Claude, who, unlike Sebastian, makes it quite clear how much he loathes Alois.  
  
Hannah, meek and quiet, who, in Ciel’s eyes, seems indifferent to Alois’ every action.  
  
The Triplets, who lurk in the corners, whispering to each other, ignoring Alois completely.  
  
Ciel glances over his shoulder, into his mansion, where he knows Finny, Bardroy, and Mei-Rin are waiting for him to eat. His three loyal servants, personally selected by himself and Sebastian, who try almost as hard as Elizabeth to keep him happy.  
  
_Lizzy._ Sweet, loving Lizzy, who always tried her very best to make him smile.  
  
Ciel looks back at Alois, who hasn’t moved from his spot at the door. A puddle of rainwater is gathering around his boots, and when Ciel hears a quiet, shuddering breath, he begins to suspect that some of those raindrops may just be tears.  
  
Sebastian is looking at him rather inquisitively. Sebastian, who saved him, who brought back his home, who is always there to protect him against anything from deranged Reapers to a common cold.  
  
Ciel sighs heavily and folds his arms. “All right, Trancy.”  
  
Alois looks up. “What?”  
  
“You can stay here for tonight. But _only_ until the storm abates, and you’re _leaving_ in the morning.”  
  
“Really?” Alois lights up like a Christmas tree, eyes regaining their shine. “Thank you, Ciel!”  
  
“Whatever. Come inside, if you’re coming. Sebastian will get you fresh clothes.”  
  
Sebastian does so, and Alois and Ciel wait for him in the hall. Ciel looks despairingly at the floor, which is steadily becoming wetter. Alois is picking absently at his sock. When Sebastian does not return, he begins to roll one down, sighing with relief as his leg is freed from the icy cage of fabric. Ciel scoffs and averts his eyes. He doesn’t think he’s even seen a newborn _baby_ dressed so immodestly. Glancing back at Alois, he sees that the other boy has noted his disdain, and is rapidly pulling the offending sock back up.  
  
_Strange_ , Ciel muses, _since when does Alois Trancy give a damn what others think?_  
  
Luckily, Sebastian returns with fresh clothes, and leads Alois away to change. Alois waves him off, saying he’s perfectly capable of dressing himself.  
  
Sebastian smirks at Ciel, who turns pink and stalks into the dining room. Alois joins him shortly, taking in the view of the long table, with a plate full of warm food on each end.  
  
“Seriously?” He says, mouth agape.  
  
Ciel sits down, eyeing Alois crossly. “What?”  
  
“You eat… here? On _this_ table?”  
  
“Why?” Ciel snaps. “Don’t you eat on a table? Or do you prefer to take your meals in a dog bowl?”  
  
Alois ignores the insult, trailing his fingers over a chair. “It’s so… big.” He looks at Ciel, confusion written clearly across his face. “Can’t you feel it?”  
  
“Feel _what_?” Ciel hears exasperation seep into the irritability in his voice.  
  
Alois’ hand tightens on the chair. “The emptiness.”  
  
Ciel blinks, surprised. It’s never really occurred to him before, how empty this room is when he eats here all alone. Struggling to regain his composure, he sputters, “Where do you eat, then?”  
  
Alois shrugs. “At a small table in the kitchen. Not like I’m any less alone, but it feels less like it.”  
  
He picks up his plate in one hand, napkin and cutlery in the other, and walks over to Ciel, placing his meal down in the seat to the left of the head.  
  
“ _What_ are you doing?” Ciel inquires, aghast. _Trust Trancy to defy all known laws of dining etiquette._  
  
“What’s the point of sitting all the way over there when we’re the only two people here? It’s no good _shouting_ across the table to each other, is it?”  
  
“But…” Ciel sighs and returns to his food. There is no point in arguing with the Trancy, he knows.  
  
Despite Alois’ claims, dinner passes in relative silence, and soon Sebastian is leading Alois to a room across the landing from Ciel’s.  
  
“Make yourself comfortable,” Ciel mumbles, wanting nothing more than to be back in his own room, and away from the blond of his nightmares.  
  
He turns sharply, with every intention of stalking away again, but his plan quickly falls apart when pale arms wrap around him from behind.  
  
“Thank you,” Alois whispers into his shoulder.  
  
Ciel peels his arms away and mutters a quick, “Whatever,” before rushing back to safety.  
  
  
  
As he helps him into his nightclothes, Sebastian chuckles.  
  
“That was quite the scene, wasn’t it, Young Master?”  
  
Ciel swats his hand away as Sebastian reaches up to undo his eyepatch. “Shut it.”  
  
“You’ll sleep with it on?”  
  
_No_ , Ciel thinks, reaching up to untie it himself, _I’m just not letting you do it, you sardonic bastard._  
  
“Leave the candles, would you?” Ciel orders, climbing into bed. “I want to read.”  
  
“As you wish, Young Master.” Sebastian backs out of the room, laughing quietly at his petulant lord.  
  
  
  
It is at around twelve that a knock sounds at Ciel’s door. He sets his book down, sighing.  
  
_Honestly, what does the damn demon want now?_  
  
“Yes, come in.”  
  
The door slowly eases open, and Ciel is surprised to see a rather sleepy and out-of-it Alois leaning against the doorframe. Once again, he is hugging himself, eyes on the floor.  
  
“What do you want?” Ciel grumbles, and Alois seems to snap back into reality.  
  
“What? O-oh… sorry. I just… I woke up, and it was so _dark_.” He visibly shudders, pushing himself off the doorframe. “I’ll go back… sorry.”  
  
Ciel doesn’t think he’s heard Alois apologize this much in his entire life, but then again, before tonight, he’s never seen the saucy, arrogant boy look so small and alone.  
  
Something about Alois’ woeful eyes and soft voice pulls at some last, humanitarian string in Ciel’s heart, causing his hand to pat the space on the bed next to him, and his mouth to speak the words he never thought he’d hear himself saying, least of all to Alois Trancy.  
  
“Come here. You can sleep with me.”  
  
Alois freezes up, eyeing Ciel like a deer in the headlights. “W-what?”  
  
“Don’t make me say it again,” Ciel snaps.  
  
Alois inches toward the bed, stopping at the side to trail his hands along the blankets, still not looking at Ciel.  
  
_God, what is his problem?_  
  
Then Ciel sees a flash of purple on the other boy’s arm, from where he’d bumped into the bannisters on the way up the stairs, and remembers something Sebastian had told him, a few weeks ago.  
  
Something about Alois’ true history.  
  
Something about the previous Earl.  
  
Ciel’s voice, quite unwittingly, drops several octaves, switching out the harsh tone for something far more gentle.  
  
“Hey,” he says quietly, reaching out to brush his fingers against Alois’. “I won’t hurt you.”  
  
Alois looks at him, cornflower eyes wide, and then a tiny smile appears on his lips. It’s small, barely noticeable, but it’s more real than his teasing smirks and too-bright beams.  
  
Ciel can’t help but feel an odd warmth in his chest at the thought that he, Ciel Vincent Phantomhive, is one of the few people who gets to see that smile.  
  
Alois climbs onto the bed, and Ciel stretches his arms out towards him, realizing a fraction of a second too late that his side is now completely open.  
  
Alois slides under the covers and curls right into Ciel’s side, curling his fingers around the fabric of Ciel’s nightshirt. Ciel blinks down at him, confused, as Alois lets out a content sigh and snuggled further into Ciel’s side. Within moments, he is breathing deeply, and the other boy has to admit that, in spite of himself, he finds Alois’ peaceful sleeping face hopelessly endearing.  
  
Ciel lets out a resigned sigh and puts his arms around Alois, sinking back into the pillows.  
  
_Tomorrow morning_ , he tells himself. _Tomorrow morning, Alois will go._  
  
  
  
The next morning, Alois doesn’t go.  
  
This is partly because, wrapped in each other’s arms, the two boys do not awake until noon, and Sebastian is in no rush to wake them… that is, not until he’s taken pictures, developed them, and then hidden several copies where Ciel will never be able to find and destroy them.  
  
As it is well past one in the afternoon when both young earls are dressed, Ciel opts to let his guest have lunch in the mansion. Once again, Alois brings his plate over to Ciel’s side of the table, and Ciel doesn’t argue this time. Unlike the night before, conversation between the two flows easily and naturally, and all traces of depression and loneliness have faded from Alois’ eyes, restoring the boy to his usual cheery self.  
  
After lunch, they take a stroll through the gardens, and soon Ciel finds himself standing alone, one hand covering his left eye, while his right eye scours the garden for a glimpse of blond hair. He can hear Alois laughing as he darts through the garden, most likely waving his trophy in the air as he runs.  
  
Ciel doesn’t know how it happened. All he knows is that they were walking, and suddenly Alois’ arms was around his waist, and he didn’t say anything because it felt… good.  
  
And then Alois’ hand moved up his back, and eventually he could feel the other boy’s fingers playing with his hair, and the next thing he knew, the warmth of Alois’ hand was gone, and so was his eyepatch. Now he sprints through his gardens, looking for Alois. Right in the heart of his garden, Ciel stops, panting, and looks around. He’s been running almost in a pattern… it feels oddly as if he’s caught in a spider’s web.  
  
And then he senses it.  
  
The spider.  
  
It’s behind him, and Ciel tenses. He’s about to turn, but he can’t because suddenly the spider is rushing at him, closer and closer and--  
  
For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, Ciel just about jumps out of his skin when arms are flung around his neck from behind. A patch of black come rushing at his face, and Ciel shifts the eyepatch to cover his marked eye while Alois ties it from the back. He then grabs the bluenette’s shoulders and spins him around, grinning madly.  
  
“Honestly,” Ciel huffs. “You seem to have taken last night to mean we’re _friends_ now.”  
  
Alois’ grin only widens, if that’s even possible. “Aren’t we?”  
  
Ciel’s ocean-blue irises once again make that standard circumnavigation of his eyes, as they so often do when he’s around the Queen’s Spider.  
  
“Whatever, Trancy.”  
  
Alois just smirks and links his arms with Ciel’s, pulling him back toward the mansion.  
  
“Well, then, _not_ -friend, let’s go back and have tea, shall we? Ooh, do you have scones? I really like scones… oh, oh, and chips. If you can get me decent fish and chips, I’ll love you forever…”  
  
Ciel groans good-naturedly as Alois babbles nineteen-to-the-dozen. It’s a ceaseless flow of completely meaningless chatter, but after all the hardships of his life, and all the cold professionalism of his work, maybe some light-hearted prattle is exactly what he needs.  
  
And… walking side by side with Alois Trancy, arms linked and so close together that he can feel Alois’ radiant warmth battling away the cold of November… Ciel won’t ever say it out loud, but it feels sort of… nice.  
  
He could get used to this.


End file.
